Journal Ryan's 4820 something Journal

[ryancamaratta]

Prequel​

Well, this is super exciting for me. I came into the hobby reading tank journals from some of the truly best hobbyists. Vin, Gregg, Joe, Hendy, etc. Gaining knowledge, getting to know people, comparing approaches and ideas. Some of those tank journals, especially the kind of exchanges that take place on Gregg and Joe's, and the sheer amount of golden information in some of them, is probably what made me fall in love with the hobby past the "wow these plants are truly cool" stage. I was fortunate enough to have the time and means to spend my vacation in Chicago this past October at the 2022 AGA convention and meet some of these great minds who I've grown to call friends in person, among many others. What a great ride this hobby and community has been for me so far!

I've spent the past year learning as much as I can and refining and polishing my technique and knowledge, so you should know...that I'm pretty much right where I started this time last year all joking aside though, the cool thing about our weird niche of tanking is that it seems like there's always something cool and challenging or intriguing to learn next, no matter how much you accumulate. And some new, confounding problem to bash your head against stubbornly for another couple week. Cheers to us, the truly mad out of all aquaria.

So! With my first two setups, I repeatedly told myself that I would eventually start a journal! And then I didn't! I'll thank Art and everyone involved for the setup of a new forum-formatted mecca for planted aquaria for nudging me to finally get some things down in a devoted thread. I finally had the perfect spot to post, right here on scapecrunch. I'm an old school forum guy at heart and a big nerd for easily indexed historical data, so a tank journal has always held an interest for me. It just so happens that for about 1-2 months now, I've been working on ideas for a new setup. I needed a bigger tank, more real estate for plants, and had to sate the urge for yet another iteration of trying to refine my approach to the hobby.

So touchdown day for the new waterbox 4820 is imminent, it will be here in five days if FedEx is to be believed, and thank god I spent every second of down time prepping for it because it's about 6 weeks early. The small amount of remaining equipment is set to arrive over the next week, and all the really necessary equipment to set it up is hanging out in a sprawling pile in my dining room already. The plan over these next few days is to review what I've done so far in prep work and setup, get a cool little equipment list going of what I'll be running here, and try to shoot some pictures in of the countless amazon orders and deliveries that have graced my front porch since mid October.

It's going to take me a little while to figure out formatting for the wysiwyg editor and whatnot, please try not to mind the mess or foul language, I'm an aspiring hobbyist first and only a well-organized gentleman 5th or 6th.

Some things to keep in mind for what I'd be overjoyed to see on my journal:
- I take critique very well. I learn fast but I am still full of questions and mistakes, so feel free to be liberal with advice and honest with critique
- I'm open minded, and I welcome any and all suggestions, changes, requests, and advice, as well as openly embrace differing opinions.
- Ball busting and jokes and lightheartedness always welcome
- Intense and off topic debate are a requirement for entry, please never feel like you're highjacking a post or my thread, I don't believe threads can be hijacked, this is supposed to be a fun and enjoyable part of our hobby's social aspect
- Within the realm of intense and off-topic debate, please keep it respectful enough within the guidelines of the site. From what I've experienced so far, Art and company really pulled out all the stops to give us a top notch forum space, so I'd just like to honor that work with minimal amounts of offensive convo or petty drama.
- If you haven't noticed yet, I can really friggin talk, so bear with me.

That's all for the opening post, I'll work on some formatting and get some actual data and setup specs up here next

 

[Joel Armstrong]

Prequel​

Well, this is super exciting for me. I came into the hobby reading tank journals from some of the truly best hobbyists. Vin, Gregg, Joe, Hendy, etc. Gaining knowledge, getting to know people, comparing approaches and ideas. Some of those tank journals, especially the kind of exchanges that take place on Gregg and Joe's, and the sheer amount of golden information in some of them, is probably what made me fall in love with the hobby past the "wow these plants are truly cool" stage. I was fortunate enough to have the time and means to spend my vacation in Chicago this past October at the 2022 AGA convention and meet some of these great minds who I've grown to call friends in person, among many others. What a great ride this hobby and community has been for me so far!

I've spent the past year learning as much as I can and refining and polishing my technique and knowledge, so you should know...that I'm pretty much right where I started this time last year all joking aside though, the cool thing about our weird niche of tanking is that it seems like there's always something cool and challenging or intriguing to learn next, no matter how much you accumulate. And some new, confounding problem to bash your head against stubbornly for another couple week. Cheers to us, the truly mad out of all aquaria.

So! With my first two setups, I repeatedly told myself that I would eventually start a journal! And then I didn't! I'll thank Art and everyone involved for the setup of a new forum-formatted mecca for planted aquaria for nudging me to finally get some things down in a devoted thread. I finally had the perfect spot to post, right here on scapecrunch. I'm an old school forum guy at heart and a big nerd for easily indexed historical data, so a tank journal has always held an interest for me. It just so happens that for about 1-2 months now, I've been working on ideas for a new setup. I needed a bigger tank, more real estate for plants, and had to sate the urge for yet another iteration of trying to refine my approach to the hobby.

So touchdown day for the new waterbox 4820 is imminent, it will be here in five days if FedEx is to be believed, and thank god I spent every second of down time prepping for it because it's about 6 weeks early. The small amount of remaining equipment is set to arrive over the next week, and all the really necessary equipment to set it up is hanging out in a sprawling pile in my dining room already. The plan over these next few days is to review what I've done so far in prep work and setup, get a cool little equipment list going of what I'll be running here, and try to shoot some pictures in of the countless amazon orders and deliveries that have graced my front porch since mid October.

It's going to take me a little while to figure out formatting for the wysiwyg editor and whatnot, please try not to mind the mess or foul language, I'm an aspiring hobbyist first and only a well-organized gentleman 5th or 6th.

Some things to keep in mind for what I'd be overjoyed to see on my journal:
- I take critique very well. I learn fast but I am still full of questions and mistakes, so feel free to be liberal with advice and honest with critique
- I'm open minded, and I welcome any and all suggestions, changes, requests, and advice, as well as openly embrace differing opinions.
- Ball busting and jokes and lightheartedness always welcome
- Intense and off topic debate are a requirement for entry, please never feel like you're highjacking a post or my thread, I don't believe threads can be hijacked, this is supposed to be a fun and enjoyable part of our hobby's social aspect
- Within the realm of intense and off-topic debate, please keep it respectful enough within the guidelines of the site. From what I've experienced so far, Art and company really pulled out all the stops to give us a top notch forum space, so I'd just like to honor that work with minimal amounts of offensive convo or petty drama.
- If you haven't noticed yet, I can really friggin talk, so bear with me.

That's all for the opening post, I'll work on some formatting and get some actual data and setup specs up here next

Hi Ryan,

Looking forward to hearing about your progress

 

[GreggZ]

Some things to keep in mind for what I'd be overjoyed to see on my journal:
- I take critique very well. I learn fast but I am still full of questions and mistakes, so feel free to be liberal with advice and honest with critique
- I'm open minded, and I welcome any and all suggestions, changes, requests, and advice, as well as openly embrace differing opinions.
- Ball busting and jokes and lightheartedness always welcome
- Intense and off topic debate are a requirement for entry, please never feel like you're highjacking a post or my thread, I don't believe threads can be hijacked, this is supposed to be a fun and enjoyable part of our hobby's social aspect
- Within the realm of intense and off-topic debate, please keep it respectful enough within the guidelines of the site. From what I've experienced so far, Art and company really pulled out all the stops to give us a top notch forum space, so I'd just like to honor that work with minimal amounts of offensive convo or petty drama.
- If you haven't noticed yet, I can really friggin talk, so bear with me.

That's all for the opening post, I'll work on some formatting and get some actual data and setup specs up here next

Hey Ryan great opening post!

It was a pleasure to meet you in Chicago, as we rarely get a chance to meet out friends in the hobby in person.

And I really like the part of your post I quoted above. I feel the same way about everthing you said.

I am really looking forward to seeing where this goes. You've got a great start with that tank. Keep the posts coming as I am sure many like myself will be following along.

 

[ryancamaratta]

Equipment sheet​

Substrate​

I have about 12 bags/ 60 liters of Landen (ordered because I want some extra leftover) and plan to use about 1o bags to get 3" of level substrate. I've never actually used v1 amazonia but I have used v2 and was really unimpressed, I don't like the root tab thing they come with.
Prior stuff used:
- I've used Oase scaper soil in one small tank and can't really write anything home about it.
- I've used UNS controsoil in my 60p and you know what it's incredibly light and soft and an absolute bitch to plant in sometimes.

I've heard a lot of good stuff about Landen as far as ammonia leach, nutrients, and especially buffering. Everyone I know with Landen is rocking a super low in-tank ph. I've been looking forward to using it for awhile now, we'll see what we see.

CO2 setup​

Ordered a 20lb tank. I actually think it's properly sized to fit in the cabinet, but I really think I'll keep it outside. Off to the side is a possibility; it's painted nicely enough that I don't think it would look terrible and I'll be using a nicely built regulator so it would be cool to show that off (you know, because all the company who comes over are absolutely the type who would appreciate a regulator ) but more than likely I'll have this a little more out of sight, like behind the tank.

Got some new tubing and seal to go with it, and I'll be injecting with a pre-built cerges reactor that I'm waiting on so no pics, but if you wanna know what the reactor looks like it's Tommy's v2 that he's sending me. Reg built by Alan Le, don't have all the specs but it has 2x of the (hi or lo?) flo swagelok precision needle valves, metered handles (kind of the same concept as using a flow meter) and it looks pretty damn sharp.

Obviously to monitor I'm going with the gold standard pinpoint monitor, one of which I already have on my 90L which has always been rock solid for me.

First time using a reactor, the other two tanks have in-tank and in-line respectively. I like them both, I just think you're a little more limited placement-wise with in-tank. In-line's been good, but I think of a reactor as just...idk, in-line sans sprite? Planning around a 1.4 drop, I've never managed to comfortably hit 1.5 yet so maybe I can try with this tank.

Filtration​

The big guns. Two Aquael Ultramax 2000s, was originally a toss up between these and I believe doubled up Fluval 407s. I had to go with the Aquael just based off what I saw and read around, thanks to everyone's help in my original post over on the equipment thread when I was trying to make this purchase. I probably spent 200 dollars less than I would've running two Oases and Oases are pretty well-known for their subpar flow, so...I really didn't want to run into those issues, especially considering I gave myself a decent amount of time to plan this setup.

The good:
- On the box rated flow for one of these is 528gph, and I'm halving that to compensate for head loss and being loaded with 5 trays of media. Being that I have two of them, division works out to be around 7-8x turnover which I think is plenty enough...realistically I'll have way less than 72 gallons of water in the tank so that rate would probably be a little higher, and I'm probably being generous in halving the advertised flow rate as well.
- Prefilter looks pretty neat, 100% more accessible than on my Oase. I haven't gotten to give it a field test yet but that prefilter box pops open on the front and you're allegedly able to change the prefilter while the unit itself is still running.
- The media trays are literally just rounded off squares, no crazy Fluval shapes, so should be real easy to cut my own foams, which I'm going to do because the ones supplied are incredibly (unnecessarily) thick.
- The head can be put on in any orientation whatsoever. At this point, adding my fourth and biggest to date tank, anything that saves even a second on maintenance is welcome haha.
- Adjustable flow valves, heavy duty plastic, thing feels indestructibly solid, and the media baskets all click together firmly which was a huge irritation on my Oase because on the Oase they do not
- I feel like I'm gonna be really happy with that flow rate, and I'm glad I went with the 2000 over the 1500.

The bad:
- Hahaaa, we shall see, once I have them all hooked up and it's too much of a pita to change!

The ugly:
- 19/25mm hose...ugh. I would've liked this to be as simple and clean an installation as possible. Oh well.

So let's talk a little bit about that 19/25mm hosing. I need to reduce to 16/22 anyway so I'm probably doing this right off the connectors to make it as simple as possible after that (reactor will be 16/22 in and out, intake and return attachments on the tank will obv be 5/8, etc) and I'm assuming that this will not hurt the flow noticeably or otherwise adversely affect the canisters at all. I'm having a really hard time finding good reducers, like the fully barbed on either ends ones. I have these from amazon:

aaand they kinda suck. They're 3/4 to 5/8 reducers and they fit like shit on the 19/25 end. Gonna be using hose clamps anyway but the proper way to use those clamps is to put them over connectors that are already the appropriate size honestly. I found this Lasco fitting in a bin somewhere with my old equipment:

and it works literally perfectly (it's 3/4 to 1/2 inch). Strangely enough, I cannot find this anywhere, and seem to have no record or recollection of buying it lol. If I could find three more of these I'd be golden, because they fit like a glove on both sizes of the hose.

I'm gonna be using pumice for filter media, probably not nearly what I have here. Maybe 2/5 trays per filter for bio. I'm not sure how big a believer I am in the whole nothing but biomedia in a canister thing, like the way I see it is the bacteria's only going to grow so big depending on the ecosystem's bioload, why give it a bunch of unnecessary homes? Idk. I'll probably set the media trays up however's easiest for maintenance.


One last note on the filtration piece, I'll have each canister hooked up to an intake lily pipe in far back left and far back right, and then two separate 20" spray bars I'm trying to have made on the back glass. I think this sounds like a good setup for even flow and maximum surface agitation, but after running into some flow-related issues on another setup I'd love to hear opinions on this. I'm not sure how this will work out for co2 dispersion also, because only one out of the two spray bars will be pushing co2 rich water in this case...interested to hear everyone's thoughts on that bit.

Miscellaneous​

I have some magtool/fzone gear floating around that could come in handy, the wavemaker they did in case I run into any surface agitation woes and their ATO. I'm definitely going for the auto top off on this setup, I went ahead and ordered a 10 gallon acrylic reservoir from Trigger Systems today and I'll keep it under the cabinet. Pre-measured and there will be enough space to accommodate reservoir, 2x canisters, and reactor with plenty of horizontal room to spare.

Some other random bits pictured below, I saved myself another fertilizer mixing headache by getting 1000mL vs 500mL dosing bottles, and I'm trying out these timers from bn link. They were cheaper on Amazon than the digital timers I've been using so what the hell. If they're reliable, they'll be more convenient. If they're not reliable, they'll be useless. Probably only need one for the reg solenoid anyway. If they hold settings and timers in the event of a power outage or anything like that then they'll work just fine for me, I'm going to test that after I post here actually.

And a big ol' bag of urea. Ordered it for my emersed stuff actually but whenever I get around to figuring out how I want to start dosing this tank, maybe I'll do some math and dose my N this way. I've never dosed urea for N before, and I'm trying a lot of brand new things already with this setup, so it would be cool to play around with. Not sure. I've heard people swear by results from urea dosing, and I've heard just as many people say it spiked ammonia badly and caused algae in their tanks, and I've heard just as many say that it had absolutely no effect whatsoever other than *maybe* slightly perkier plants the first week or two.





That's all for right now, dropping a light pic teaser as it's what I'm most excited about with this setup but I don't have anymore typing in me at the moment lol...gotta run to lowe's to see if I can find more of these Lasco fittings of mysterious origins. If anyone's up and reading drop some feedback!

 

[Freshflora]

Looking forward to seeing where this goes! One thing I’d say is try to take your sweet time setting everything up. So far you’ve done an awesome job with that.

 

[OmidNiav]

This is super exciting. Let me know if you need plants.

Omid

 

[Immortal1]

Nice write up Ryan. As I am probably more of a hardware guy vs plantbrain - really like Alan's regulator builds. My regulator is from Flowerfish if you have ever run across his name. Interesting you have 2 needle valves. If you had 2 solenoid valves to go with the needle valves that could offer an interesting setup (start of co2 cycle, both solenoids are open. Once co2 builds up, one solenoid shuts off. This would give a bit faster ramp up on Co2).

My tank is 75g (if you go by the exterior dimensions LOL) and yours sounds like a similar size. I run a 10# CO2 tank and it feeds my 75 and her 40g cube - lasts about 3 months. Your 20# on 1 tank likely could last you 6+ months - nice!

You mentioned the Cerges reactor. Unfortunately not sure what Tommy's looks like. Below is basically my little creation. Ignore the numbers - was trying to help someone else source all the fittings (and yes, the pic is sideways).


One thing I have learned over the years - use a good check valve. US Plastics has some decent check valves Check Valves | U.S. Plastic Corp.
But I really like the Dennerle check valves - a little expensive but I have not had one fail yet. The check valve in the above pic was from PetCo and lasted about a month.
Dennerle High Quality CO2 Check Valve - AquaCave.com
While I am discussing co2 - have you thought about a Flow Meter instead of the bubble counters?

"Aquael Ultramax 2000" - looks to be a decent filter. I am running a single Fluval FX4 which I do like, but I see real advantages to running 2 or more filters. The 3/4" to 1/2" reducers will have an effect on your overall flow. But as you noted "I'll have way less than 72 gallons of water in the tank". By the time you add in 3" of soil you will definitely have less water volume. Have not done the math, but I wonder how much water your 2 filters will hold vs what you would loose with the substrate?

Oh, and Nice Light!

 

[Art]

Ryan -

This build thread is awesome! You are setting a high standard.

I also love the thought you've put into this build and the fact that you're going for top-notch equipment. I'm a gear junkie by nature so I love applying technology to the science of growing plants.

That light fixture was one of my goals for a long time. It's fantastic with a tremendous track record.

Looking forward to how this translates into a full set up soon.

 

[ryancamaratta]

Interesting you have 2 needle valves. If you had 2 solenoid valves to go with the needle valves that could offer an interesting setup (start of co2 cycle, both solenoids are open. Once co2 builds up, one solenoid shuts off. This would give a bit faster ramp up on Co2).

This is a pretty cool idea, I've honestly never thought of this. Would be a really efficient way to hit peak saturation and then just have one valve responsible for maintaining that through the photoperiod once the other one shuts off! I'm not familiar with Flowerfish but would love to see his work for sure, if he can build stuff good enough to satisfy a hardware guy then he must be good haha!

Your 20# on 1 tank likely could last you 6+ months - nice!

I got it for pretty cheap too! 20lb was a must for me. I have an Airgas basically two blocks away from me which sounds super convenient, but they do not refill tanks, only swap them. That's fine for the rusty 20# I have on my 90L but not for the ss 5# on my 60p or this one...so to get to a place that will refill, I have about a 50 minute drive.

While I am discussing co2 - have you thought about a Flow Meter instead of the bubble counters?

So I actually have put alot of thought into it previously because I remember talking to Gregg about his; by the time I got around to having the reg built I kind of forgot flow meters existed but, I did search around on ebay for swagelok's metered nv handles, here's a pic of them kind of hard to get the angle:


so it's a little less accurate than a flow meter for now I'm guessing, but it does take the guesswork out and gives me a solid reference point which is what I care about. At this point, with the handles on there, I could completely ditch the bubble counters; right now they're only on there (empty all the time lol) because each one has a built in check valve...which brings me to your next point. You're talking about running the check valve between the reg and the reactor yes? I'll have to grab one of the ones you linked to incorporate that in there, they're all suitable for co2 line?

You know, you make a good point about canister volume. I estimated having 60 gallons of usable water column when I was doing the basic math for what number I wanted to base dosing on, that was taking 3" of sub away plus maybe 3/4inch to an inch below the rim of the tank obviously. But each canister holds 4 gallons, obviously less than media, but I wonder what that would put my volume at for basing dosing and flow rate off of?

I like that reactor alot, the cerges tommy's sending looks pretty bare bones compared to it.

CO2 Reactor version 2

Redesigned our successful CO2 Reactor. Version 2 was made with Acrylic and UPVC Connection. On top of that it has 3 sizes of fittings available from 12mm, 16mm, and Fluval FX Series 25mm. There are also 2 sizes of reactor accordingly to your aquarium size need. The small version is 13 Inches...

aquarockscolorado.com

I'm not sure how to incorporate a bypass like the one you have or even why it's necessary...I know he's including a three way valve with this but I believe he said that's just to bleed the system after a water change etc to make it easier to get the air out instead of flipping the reactor upside down?

Oh, and Nice Light!

That light fixture was one of my goals for a long time. It's fantastic with a tremendous track record.

Thanks guys! This light is what inspired the whole setup, I picked this up over this summer actually from a reef guy and got basically a deal that I couldn't pass up on it, so I said well I'll grab it now I've been wanting a 4ft tank anyway...we're sick people haha. I think the next post will be some more pics and tentative bulb combo for the light.

This build thread is awesome! You are setting a high standard.

I also love the thought you've put into this build and the fact that you're going for top-notch equipment. I'm a gear junkie by nature so I love applying technology to the science of growing plants.

I really appreciate those words Art, thank you. I wish more people would do journals of new or existing setups, I can read these things like books man lol. I have countless pages from others' journals bookmarked and saved because they're such great resources, tank journals is always the best part of the forum in my opinion and I'm pumped to finally be starting one.

Also a fellow gear junkie, and love the scientific application of anything within the hobby. I like to try and quantify things we don't even have a great need to quantify in our hobby (take dosing for example) just because it's really interesting to break down systems and see how they work and try to understand the why and how behind everything. I for sure ran with your advice on the filtration thread I posted, go for the best equipment this time around to rule out as much inconvenience and potential failure as possible. I want this setup to be rock solid.

 

[BigWave]

Nice build thread. Looking forward to seeing more.

 

[Immortal1]

Ryan,
Those metering valves work nicely - have some myself. The vernier handle helps with accurately maintaining a specific flow.
The check valves are all compatible with standard CO2 line.
For dosing calculations, I would include the canister water volume as the canister water and tank water are constantly flowing in the entire system.
As for turn over rate, I would not include the canister volume in the calculation - only the estimated water volume within the tank.
For me, the bypass (with valve) is really only needed to fine tune the reactor to the flow of the canister filter. For example, a given reactor can flow 100 gph without a noticeable increase in back pressure. The attached canister filter can flow 200 gph. Without the bypass, the 200gph filter will likely only be able to flow 110-120 gph max.
Now in your case, looking at the reactor pics, I don't see the typical restrictions that you have when using a commercial whole house water filter. Your reactor will likely be able to handle what ever flow your canister filter is capable of. I don't think you will benefit from a by-pass valve.

 

[ryancamaratta]

Finally time for the light post, I put it on 25% to grab some pics just now. Planning on a dark cycle so still have time to tweak the bulbs and figure out what I want everything on.



The fixture is a dimmable 48" ATI Sunpower, 6 bulbs. From left (front) to right (back):
- Giesemann superflora
- Giesemann purple plus
- Power veg 660
- Hydrofarm 6400k
- Power veg 660
- Power veg 420

It has a good amount of salt creep built up inside from the previous owner, but it runs like a champ so far. Looking around on ATI north america's website, it looks like it's an old enough fixture where any parts I may need to replace down the line are cheap and available. If the original owner is to be believed it was purchased only a couple years ago and didn't see all that much use.

I did replace the fan assemblies because the grommets and clips that are supposed to hold the fans in place were all chopped up. I have it mounted on a pulley system I found on amazon, the goal was to have something that was convenient enough to raise and lower for adjusting intensity and even more importantly for being able to get into the tank unobstructed when it's time for maintenance.


19" L-brackets from Lowe's, 3" screws I believe they were #14, both into studs. I wish there were an equivalent setup for the steel cable to run just that through pulleys but oh well. Hopefully the tank will be eye catching enough that nobody will be looking up, the rope coils ontop out of the way alright, I have it bound up with velcro strips.

Pulleys are ratcheting and have a large catch/lever on the side to depress in order to lower the fixture. Maybe they will stay and maybe they will go, but for right now they seem like they'll be useful when starting up the tank at the very least, I'm sure I'll have some growing pains running T5s for the first time. It's super easy to level the fixture this way, qc on the ratcheting mechanism is good enough to just count an equal number of clicks on each side.

So yeah, the mounting is pretty bare bones, if I had more time I would've fancied it up a little more but here it is. Now let me talk about this bulb combo. Got this combo just to start off with, @spawnerjp is running it on his setup and has obvious success with it. It blends nice but I don't like the very strong pink hue on the backdrop; not worried about the backlighting effect or anything, I'm just trying to envision how that will look on substrate, but I probably won't know until I get some Landen underneath it.

I had a different brand of 660nm very briefly and can understand why people hype the power veg so much, it's different. Love the 660 and 420 by them and would like them to stay, but not sure if I have them in the best spots.

Most of my limited knowledge of T5 has come from reading stuff (journals) by @GreggZ and @Burr740. I was reading through the old bulb combo thread and saw Joe recommended a couple times a 3000K to balance out some of the heaviness of the power veg. I just need to figure out placement on that, I'm thinking just straight swapping out that whiteish 6400K for a 3000K and seeing if it helps any with a warmer/more natural look. Finger on the trigger for that bulb, will most likely order it and update here. Don't really have a bunch of bulbs to play around with since I'm just starting this out, and most of my time acquiring bulbs was spent searching for those damn power veg...

The height the light is set up at right now is as high as the pulleys and my mounting of the brackets will allow, about 22" above the tank. No luck on shades yet, but it's a little bit less of a priority now. Sounds crazy but something with the reef bulbs that had still been in the fixture was really glaring on the eye, ever since getting all mine in there it's alot nicer, spill over doesn't seem as bad as I thought it would be either. There's a small raised banister to the right there in my dining room that will almost be against the right side of the tank, planning to put some terrestrials there and see if they like the little bit of spill over.

 

[ryancamaratta]

For dosing calculations, I would include the canister water volume as the canister water and tank water are constantly flowing in the entire system.
As for turn over rate, I would not include the canister volume in the calculation - only the estimated water volume within the tank.

Thanks for this advice. Not gonna lie, it's been so long since I set up the 60p that I kind of forgot what I based the volume and math for dosing on. I've been running the other two tanks long enough that I just pretty much have a baseline that I know works so I go off that. I also went and grabbed a couple decent check valves from your recommendation, didn't spring for the Dennerle but got some UNS ones...I love my UNS tank, I hate all their equipment, but the check valves looked sturdy enough. I think they're the murlock/push to connect style fittings.

Speaking of dosing volume, I was playing around with a good spot to start at and decided for a tank that's bigger than what I'm used to I'll probably just measure out dry and dump them in at least for macros. Easier at this point than messing w a solution, I grabbed some 1000ml bottles and even with those I run into the solubility issues with K. I frontload on the other two tanks anyway and will on this one, just as easy to grab a teaspoon every week.

Not much going else going on right now except trying to get organized before tank delivery day on thursday. ATO reservoir came and looks nice, got that reactor assembled and ready to go, and I'll be switching out the nice reg from my 90L tomorrow after work. 20# is gassed up and ready to go. Only thing giving me anxiety right now is waiting on those reducers to be delivered, it's been surprisingly difficult to find one that fits to go down from 19/25 to 16/22 that actually fits both hoses snug and isn't brass or copper check valve on the reactor in the pics is gonna get swapped out when those push to fit ones come in with the rest of my 16/22mm hose

 

[GreggZ]

Excellent tank build so far Ryan.

NASA would be proud of you!

 

[Art]

Love it! Keep it coming!


Speaking of ATOs, here's a terrible picture of my reservoir made by Hmahli. It's a 4 gallon that lasts me a couple of weeks. I love it and the wife doesn't object to it being visible.

 

[ryancamaratta]

Love it! Keep it coming!

View attachment 623
Speaking of ATOs, here's a terrible picture of my reservoir made by Hmahli. It's a 4 gallon that lasts me a couple of weeks. I love it and the wife doesn't object to it being visible.

Love this! I like the markings so you can gauge how much you're going through in a given time too. What size tank is it on?

 

[ryancamaratta]

Excellent tank build so far Ryan.

NASA would be proud of you!

I think I'm too verbose for NASA

 

[ryancamaratta]

Alright update time! Gonna try to make this post less words and more pictures, the tank was delivered without a hitch Thursday and I went non-stop since then every day after work to get everything levelled and hooked up (and run into anything I may have forgotten to get ready for this build of course lol). FedEx guy was really cool and offered to help me get everything up on my porch...he was also interested in growing aquatic plants, and had heard of aquascaping, and talked with me out front for a good ten minutes asking me all kinds of planted tank questions which was surprising and pretty bad ass!





Not impressed with wb cabinets for the price, the default cut-out for the sump makes me nervous with an unbraced tank on it, as does the front rim not being supported--sticks out by design. The cabinet doors are really difficult to get level, and the levelling feet, while great, are kind of hard to get access to.





The good: it's super solid wood and feels like it has a pretty good water-repellent coat on it. It's also beautiful:





Just enough room for the ATO reservoir, reactor, and canisters underneath:





Setting up the canisters with bottom tray to top tray:
- Coarse foam
- Med foam
- Whatever biomedia they came with
- Two media bags of pumice
- One 3-layer coarse/med/fine foam ontop





Reactor put together, pic of the push-connect UNS check valves I grabbed, getting ready to cut some hose and see if the reducers fit, and the abomination going on behind my washer that splits cold water into one side for tap out of hose for easy initial flooding of the tank (using tap to flood and dark cycling) also helpful to have that tap from the hose if I need to do a larger than 100% wc in the future:





Nice pic before I painted, terrible pic after my first attempt to plastidip, third pic of plastidip being fixed a couple coats later





CO2 cylinder and reg hooked up, already hooked up to the empty reactor:





Planning to do some terrestrials on the side banister, hoping to fill those out soon, these are my first attempts at terrestrial plants so we'll see what else I can arrange around the tank. I'd like some grown out greenery around it, I also need to do some touch up paint to the banister next to the tank (I rent, white's my only option here lol):





Plastidip done drying, flipped the tank right side around finally:

^so you can see a couple spots on the top of the back rim that needed another coat or two. I may regret later not touching them up but this was day two of spraying plastidip in my not large home with one fan blowing fumes out a window, so I was kind of ready to be done with it. The spray bar will most likely sit high up enough that I may be the only person to ever really notice it. Obviously not too worried about the jagged sides and bottom, all of that will be covered by substrate and I should have plants covering the back corners there. To touch up before I flood, or to postpone for some unknown time in the future when the tank is already live?



Final pictures, filter attachments set up:

So first off, ignore the spray bars. These came with the canisters and are temporary, just so I can start cycling the tank. Having a setup made that's two separate 20" bars for as much coverage across the back as I can get, and then I'll have a few inches left in the corners for the intakes. If he's able to make it the way I'm trying, those big ugly j-hooks will be gone too and we'll just have PVC hooked around the top to the hoses in back.
That spray bar setup won't be here for at least another two weeks, so we're rocking out with these for now.

The intakes..I hit a temporary stumble here. Once I hooked them up I was like holy shit these are way too short. Even if you picture 3-3.5 inches of sub on the bottom, the intakes are still pretty high up in the tank. I asked around for opinions and quite a few people said they were absolutely fine as far as my concerns about flow pattern went, so I'm going to leave them. A pair of 17" inlets would be ideal here but anything above the 11 or 12 inch ones I have here I can only find in stainless steel, which I'm not really after. If these don't work I'll switch them out to ss but otherwise, well I'm just gonna hope these are fine lol.

There's also alot more going on behind the tank than there should be right now: with my custom spray bar running late, I had to use the stock ones...which meant, after reducing to 16/22mm hose from the filter nozzles, putting reducers back on and running short lengths of 19/25mm hose to fit the j-hooks for the outflow. Super messy, hate knowing it's back there, but it will only be for a little while until the smaller diameter spray bars come in and I can get rid of those extra sets of reducers on the outflow hoses.




I tried boiling the hoses after I cut them as short as I could with still leaving enough slack. Boiled them multiple times for quite awhile...still couldn't get them completely straight, my plan was to hook them up and see if they dried and stiffened up that way. It did make a big difference from before I boiled them but as you can see, still got some super awkward bends to them. Idk what to do here unless I trim every single centimeter of slack off all the hoses, and then try boiling again. Also got the double taps onto all four hoses in back.





We'll end with a quick pic of the fixture, I swapped an AgroMax 3000K into the 6400K's spot. Curious to hear opinions. You can't tell very well from the pics, still has that really pink hue to it, but in person I think the 3000K warmed it up some and made it a little more natural looking. Only way to tell for sure will be once I get the substrate in there and make sure it's black, and not blurple





Next items on the to-do list:
- Today I have to take a razor to the inside of the tank, there's no visible rubber/plastidip but if you run your hands over the inside glass you can feel a super light texture in some places inside the front panel and on the bottom glass. Must have been some overspray when I coated the back.
- Fill the ATO reservoir up with some RO
- Find an old blanket or sheet big enough to cover this thing for the blackout, figure out how to drape it without completely covering up the top or having it sag into the tank
- That just leaves tomorrow, which will be finally loading up all this landen, and very very slowly flooding the tank with tap, and getting around to seeing how these filters do. Will be an interesting time to find out whether or not those weird reducers I had to order will hold or not without leaking.

 

[Freshflora]

Alright update time! Gonna try to make this post less words and more pictures, the tank was delivered without a hitch Thursday and I went non-stop since then every day after work to get everything levelled and hooked up (and run into anything I may have forgotten to get ready for this build of course lol). FedEx guy was really cool and offered to help me get everything up on my porch...he was also interested in growing aquatic plants, and had heard of aquascaping, and talked with me out front for a good ten minutes asking me all kinds of planted tank questions which was surprising and pretty bad ass!
View attachment 625View attachment 626




Not impressed with wb cabinets for the price, the default cut-out for the sump makes me nervous with an unbraced tank on it, as does the front rim not being supported--sticks out by design. The cabinet doors are really difficult to get level, and the levelling feet, while great, are kind of hard to get access to.
View attachment 634




The good: it's super solid wood and feels like it has a pretty good water-repellent coat on it. It's also beautiful:
View attachment 631




Just enough room for the ATO reservoir, reactor, and canisters underneath:
View attachment 633




Setting up the canisters with bottom tray to top tray:
- Coarse foam
- Med foam
- Whatever biomedia they came with
- Two media bags of pumice
- One 3-layer coarse/med/fine foam ontop
View attachment 629




Reactor put together, pic of the push-connect UNS check valves I grabbed, getting ready to cut some hose and see if the reducers fit, and the abomination going on behind my washer that splits cold water into one side for tap out of hose for easy initial flooding of the tank (using tap to flood and dark cycling) also helpful to have that tap from the hose if I need to do a larger than 100% wc in the future:
View attachment 628View attachment 632View attachment 630View attachment 641




Nice pic before I painted, terrible pic after my first attempt to plastidip, third pic of plastidip being fixed a couple coats later
View attachment 635View attachment 636View attachment 638




CO2 cylinder and reg hooked up, already hooked up to the empty reactor:
View attachment 637




Planning to do some terrestrials on the side banister, hoping to fill those out soon, these are my first attempts at terrestrial plants so we'll see what else I can arrange around the tank. I'd like some grown out greenery around it, I also need to do some touch up paint to the banister next to the tank (I rent, white's my only option here lol):
View attachment 639




Plastidip done drying, flipped the tank right side around finally:
View attachment 640
^so you can see a couple spots on the top of the back rim that needed another coat or two. I may regret later not touching them up but this was day two of spraying plastidip in my not large home with one fan blowing fumes out a window, so I was kind of ready to be done with it. The spray bar will most likely sit high up enough that I may be the only person to ever really notice it. Obviously not too worried about the jagged sides and bottom, all of that will be covered by substrate and I should have plants covering the back corners there. To touch up before I flood, or to postpone for some unknown time in the future when the tank is already live?



Final pictures, filter attachments set up:
View attachment 643
So first off, ignore the spray bars. These came with the canisters and are temporary, just so I can start cycling the tank. Having a setup made that's two separate 20" bars for as much coverage across the back as I can get, and then I'll have a few inches left in the corners for the intakes. If he's able to make it the way I'm trying, those big ugly j-hooks will be gone too and we'll just have PVC hooked around the top to the hoses in back.
That spray bar setup won't be here for at least another two weeks, so we're rocking out with these for now.

The intakes..I hit a temporary stumble here. Once I hooked them up I was like holy shit these are way too short. Even if you picture 3-3.5 inches of sub on the bottom, the intakes are still pretty high up in the tank. I asked around for opinions and quite a few people said they were absolutely fine as far as my concerns about flow pattern went, so I'm going to leave them. A pair of 17" inlets would be ideal here but anything above the 11 or 12 inch ones I have here I can only find in stainless steel, which I'm not really after. If these don't work I'll switch them out to ss but otherwise, well I'm just gonna hope these are fine lol.

There's also alot more going on behind the tank than there should be right now: with my custom spray bar running late, I had to use the stock ones...which meant, after reducing to 16/22mm hose from the filter nozzles, putting reducers back on and running short lengths of 19/25mm hose to fit the j-hooks for the outflow. Super messy, hate knowing it's back there, but it will only be for a little while until the smaller diameter spray bars come in and I can get rid of those extra sets of reducers on the outflow hoses.




I tried boiling the hoses after I cut them as short as I could with still leaving enough slack. Boiled them multiple times for quite awhile...still couldn't get them completely straight, my plan was to hook them up and see if they dried and stiffened up that way. It did make a big difference from before I boiled them but as you can see, still got some super awkward bends to them. Idk what to do here unless I trim every single centimeter of slack off all the hoses, and then try boiling again. Also got the double taps onto all four hoses in back.
View attachment 642




We'll end with a quick pic of the fixture, I swapped an AgroMax 3000K into the 6400K's spot. Curious to hear opinions. You can't tell very well from the pics, still has that really pink hue to it, but in person I think the 3000K warmed it up some and made it a little more natural looking. Only way to tell for sure will be once I get the substrate in there and make sure it's black, and not blurple
View attachment 627




Next items on the to-do list:
- Today I have to take a razor to the inside of the tank, there's no visible rubber/plastidip but if you run your hands over the inside glass you can feel a super light texture in some places inside the front panel and on the bottom glass. Must have been some overspray when I coated the back.
- Fill the ATO reservoir up with some RO
- Find an old blanket or sheet big enough to cover this thing for the blackout, figure out how to drape it without completely covering up the top or having it sag into the tank
- That just leaves tomorrow, which will be finally loading up all this landen, and very very slowly flooding the tank with tap, and getting around to seeing how these filters do. Will be an interesting time to find out whether or not those weird reducers I had to order will hold or not without leaking.

Looking sweet! The one thing that jumps out at me is to make sure you only have coarse sponge and not medium or fine sponges in the canister that will be hooked up to the reactor to avoid CO2 fluctuations.

 

[GreggZ]

Good to see an update. This is an epic build!

Keep up the good work and I can't wait to see plants in it.

Funny to hear the delivery driver was interested in planted tanks.......Let's face it when I mention it to most people they pretty much look at me with a blank stare!